“Yep.” She stared at him and smiled. “Tell you what. You go do your baseball and keep away from my stuff. And in twenty years, when you come and propose, we’ll get married. Okay?”
“Yes. I will. I’ll do that.” He held out his hand, and they shook. It wasn’t a pinkie promise. It was one better. Cemented on the word of Piper Mason herself.
A superhero.
His future wife.
Chapter 1
Present day, November 21st
“No parties. No boys. No liquor or drugs.” Piper Mason glared down at her eleven-year old niece and gave her the hard stare.
“How about vaping and cigarettes?” Joy put two fingers to her lips and pretended to smoke. “Can I chew gum? Can I eat a lot of candy? What about pixie sticks?”
Piper upped her glare, frowning so hard she gave herself a headache. Did she look intimidating? She felt intimidating. “No, no, and no to sugar.” Hmm. What had she forgotten? “Oh, and no using the car without permission.” She couldn’t take it anymore and finally let her face relax. “Ugh. How’d I do?”
Joy looked just like her dad, Piper’s brother. Always sunny and wearing a perpetual smile. “Not bad, but Jenna’s tough. You gotta look like you mean it, Aunt Piper.”
“I’ll try.”
They both turned as Piper’s brother, sister-in-law, and fourteen-year old niece dragged their bags to the SUV in the driveway. Picking up Joy’s bag, Piper escorted the youngest out to the others.
Her brother turned to her and smiled. “You sure you’ve got this? Jenna and the house?”
“You bet. Go on. You guys go do your work slash vacation. Say hi to the in-laws for me. Jenna and I will hold the fort.” Jenna, Piper’s oldest niece and a junior in high school, hadn’t wanted to miss her classes (or her boyfriend) and had bowed out of a chance to hit wine country with her grandparents with a final stop at Disneyland.
“Okay, but you have our numbers.” Jared liked to worry. Considering all the trouble he’d gotten into when younger, he had a right to be anxious.
But geez. He didn’t trust her? “I’m thirty-two years old, you know.”
“More like thirty-three,” he muttered.
She talked over him, not counting the few months until her birthday. “I think I can manage to not destroy your house while you’re away. I mean, who do you think narked when you tried throwing that party when Mom and Dad went to visit Nana all those years ago?”
He scowled. “I thought it was the neighbor. Thanks a lot.”
Near him, Joy snickered. Her sister put her in a headlock, and the two giggled as they wrestled.
“Get in the car, aliens,” Piper’s sister-in-law said, rolling her eyes. “This is going to be a long trip.”
“No kidding.” Jared kissed his wife and watched the three settle into the car. He walked to Piper and gave her a hug. Then he pulled back wearing his lawyer face. Ugh. Mr. Business could be so boring. “Work will only take two weeks, so if you need us just call. We’re only stretching out our trip because we need a little family time.”
“Jared, you’ve told me this already.” Like, a bazillion times.
He sighed and in a lower voice said, “Jenna could use a parental break too, so thanks for filling in for us.”
“She loves you guys.” Piper happened to know the teen was feeling smothered by her mother lately, so the break would do them all good. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get high or pregnant while you’re gone.”
“Damn, Piper. Just what I don’t need to be worried about.”
Piper snickered. “I’m kidding. While the younger ones can miss a little school—”
“Technically, they’ll be working, writing essays on our travels.”
“Way to take the fun out of a vacation.”
Jared frowned. “A few days missed is one thing, but we’ll be gone for a month.”
